Good morning. So, let's talk about the brutal disappointment that can accompany online shopping. For some things, it's hard to beat online prices at outlets like Overstock and Rugs USA. But you're rolling the dice a bit when you order something you haven't seen in person, and therein lies the rub.
In the literature world, we call that foreshadowing (to roughly quote John Green). I told you about my Black Friday purchase of a couple rugs from Overstock, and I shared the immediate love we had for Option 1, which arrived last week. Realizing we were going to keep Option 1, not only because we promptly started living on it, we crossed our fingers that we'd love Option 2 just as much, and that it could be dining room rug.
So when it came on Monday, I was pretty excited. I unfolded the thing and shoved it under the table and snapped this pic and stepped back and said, "Meh." (These are all quick shots, so please excuse the photo quality).
So, about this rug. We were excited about it for a bunch of reasons. One, we liked the flat weave; two, we liked the variation in color and hoped that we'd end up with an airy feel that was still good at disguising dirt, and three, it's made of recycled blue jeans. I mean, how cool is that? And four, it was super cheap - it's $158 today on Overstock, and we got an additional 15% off on Black Friday. For an 8' x 10' rug that doesn't look like it will spontaneously combust, that's a really good deal.
The rug is cool, it really is. And I like it better in this photo than I like it in real life, just as I quite liked the online photos. The problem ends up being with the texture and the exact color. Because the rugs are recycled, they are each unique, and we thought the one we were getting would be a bit lighter in feel (i.e., have more white in it).
Bret was Skyping with me while I shoved the rug in the dining room, and we both agreed it was wrong for the dinign room and didn't work with the rest of our "decor" like we were hoping. But, before giving up (and making the trek to the UPS store in the rain), I wanted to make sure it wouldn't work in the family room, either.
So I dragged it over there. There it is, under my giant, crooked Christmas tree, near my three-nager daughter, looking for all the world like she's texting someone about her crazy mom who's shouldering furniture around. But anyway, I guess I don't even hate it that much in this picture - but I HATED it in person. If I hadn't liked the first one so much, I might have liked this one more. Here's a refresher photo of the first rug:
But having seen what my living room can look like in a bit more of an airy, sophisticated way, I really didn't dig the I-made-this-at-camp vibe of the denim rug. We love our fancy-for-us couch and thought the Greek key rug paired with it so well - which made us feel like grownups. Then we found aqua lamps at Marshall's (one's by my skiing penguin, whom I love) and really felt like we had achieved design maturity.
The crafternoon rug did not make us feel like grownups. I feel terrible saying that, because I love homemade stuff, and stuff that doesn't take itself too seriously, and also because I really wanted to go with a recycled product here. But I thought it was going to look a bit more, er, professional? I suppose I am an idiot for not expecting this, but it was really, really obvious the thing was made with someone's old Levi's, in a way that I didn't end up digging in person. To wit:
This reminds me of nothing so much as a bale of laundry.
We thought we'd be getting something a little more like the recycled sari rug we first considered for this space. Turns out, jeans lack the same panache as saris. Shocked, I say.
I also didn't love the size, though I think I could get used to a rug that big. And it's probably the right size for the dining room, so the chairs can all still on the rug when pulled out. But size didn't matter here, because I HATED it. I kept telling Bret I didn't hate it, which means I did hate it.
So, no chance to vote here, guys, though I'd love your input on a related issue. Once I had moved the aqua rug under the dining table to see how it would look there, and if it would play at all better with the denim rug (spoiler: it did not), I didn't bother to move it back for a couple days.
The last two days have been filled with terror at the thought of dropping food on the carpet, and I've been making Lou eat standing up in the kitchen. I've never been one for rugs under tables - why make crumb collection harder? - but I thought a flat-weave in here would make a lot of sense to delineate the spaces. Now I am afraid that it's folly. Maybe if I went with an indoor/outdoor rug? Something with more or darker pattern that still goes well with the aqua rug? Does anyone have strong opinions on rugs in the dining room? Any tips?
Okay, thanks for checking in. I'm off to the UPS store to return this rug. Wish me luck - the Internet informs me Overstock is not always great about full refunds - and I'll see you tomorrow!